The rise of Christmas business lunches in Mallorca

Now, finally, Belén is smiling. And nothing less. Christmas 2022, the first to launch since 2019, promises to be the best experience for restaurants in Spain, including Mallorca. There is no inflation, no energy crisis, no frozen wages, which are resisting and no one seems willing to give up before certain dates shown in red by families and companies. at any cost.

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Belén, Eagle’s manager, explains the demand that lunches and dinners before and after Christmas are already flooding the pages of the calendar: “We’ve been having Christmas dinners since October and they’ll last until January,” explains Belén, Eagle’s manager, at Real Golf. Restaurant located in Bendinat. These days at Eagle and most cafeterias do coil tie so you don’t have to decline any of the calls requesting tables for future dates. With a pre-pandemic Christmas-specific exuberance, reservations are available almost every hour of the day, seven days a week, but with numbers that in most cases will exceed 2019, one of the “best years” for restoration.

In Eagle’s case, Belén prepared half a dozen menus for all budgets, but with a self-imposed premise: Not to pass on a 25 percent increase in raw material prices to its customers. In this way, and of course by setting a limit on the consumption of free alcohol, the drop in profitability is bearable. However, he had to tweak his meals occasionally, such as monkfish instead of hailfish: cheaper items that didn’t make the menus unaffordable for the majority.

In this way, the restaurant will be able to balance its accounts and it will be possible for the “great hard work” they will show in the coming weeks after a dark period that the owner prefers to forget. And the thing is, after two years of restrictions and movement restrictions, people were “really looking forward to partying.” Belén assures this after confirming how closed groups for a certain number of people have expanded until they have nearly doubled the number of diners. The Eagle manager understands that “no one wants to miss out” on this appointment with Noel, and so anyone who doesn’t close their reservation right now “risks being left out.”

RECORD

They share the diagnosis from CAEB Restoration. Its president, Alfonso Robledo, acknowledges the industry-wide “high booking rate” and is also favored by the whimsical ten-day calendar ideal for celebration: Friday, December 2nd to Sunday, December 11th. Because in the current context – Belén Bobes deserves it – Sunday is also a “great day” for agape. In addition to such restaurants, Platja de Palma, Calvià, Sóller, Alcúdia-Can Picafort or four and five-star hotels still open at this point in the Balearic capital also prepare special menus for these dates. . And judging by the front atmosphere, no one will leave empty tables.

LAGBAHÇE

Those who have not yet written their celebration dates at this point will likely have to arrange it at home. Cristina searched for a place for lunch and a few drinks for weeks. Without a closed group, he’s let time pass without any reservations, and now with more than twenty restaurants signing up, he’s struggling to find the ideal spot without ever having to leave Palma. Leonardo Melucci of L’Artista pizzeria admits it’s “complicated” to find a table at this point in November. Unsurprisingly, its three stores in Can Pastilla, Paseo Marítimo and Son Moix are about to hang their ‘full for Christmas’ sign. And if they don’t, it’s just because they’re not interested. “Group reservations help us throughout the week, but on Fridays and Saturdays we try to keep restaurants full and tables empty,” explains Melucci, who also sees firsthand how company events progress across the calendar from traditional dates to first. this month.

And not only that: groups are now “much larger” than they were before the pandemic. This supports Belén Bobes’ statement that “no one wants to be left out” at a festival that will be lived to the fullest for the first time in three years. And just like at Eagle, at L’Artista they will avoid passing inflation on to the customer. Here, too, Leonardo is talking about a price increase that never exceeds 10%, despite limiting beverage consumption. Judging by the reservations that L’Artista manages and groups of up to 180 people have already been confirmed, menu prices are fixed at a range of 30 to 40 euros per dinner for lunch and dinner. people. And though the phone still rings, Eduardo Melucci remembers “it’s okay not to leave everything to the last minute”, especially at the doorstep of a Christmas filled with company dinners.

WINNING

The illusion that existed to save Christmas was also perceived by CAEB Restauración. Alfonso Robledo says that in many companies where the property does not undertake such an event, he has found that it is the workers themselves who take the initiative, albeit out of pocket, to enjoy the Christmas gathering. with colleagues. In fact, the unprecedented anticipation of these celebrations took place on an even greater scale on the Peninsula, Robledo attributes to the fact that we had enjoyed meteorological summer here just a few days ago. “This has certainly made us forget that we are on the verge of the Christmas break,” the head of the CAEB restoration organization emphasizes.

afternoon

Family and company celebrations in 2022 also confirm a trend change confirmed by Safrà 21 rice restaurant Pedro Mayol: “People left the night to change it to lunch.” Another of the many effects of the success of the ‘tardeo’, which managed to gather as many followers as Palma in a few places in Spain. According to Mayol, groups prefer to eat at the restaurant and have their first drink rather than meeting for the night, as was customary until recently. And although it already takes business groups these days, only one date has been completed on Safrà 21: Friday, December 16. There, the prices of the Christmas menus remained unchanged from last year, with options from 35 to 45 euros and yes, eliminating the invitation to the first drink.

In addition, they have already received 800 suckling pigs for home delivery from the Ciudad Jardín restaurant. Pedro Mayol believes that after a record 2021 takeout due to mobility restrictions, it will be a “very good” Christmas for the industry anyway, and many people are “eager” to celebrate these dates after the pandemic has passed. Despite all this, and in the context of such enthusiasm, one word will have to be kept in mind: moderation. Because the adverse effects of a poorly managed company dinner are for another piece of news, of course.